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Ace: Mark of the Bat
Ace: Mark of the Bat is a story arc that started in mid-2013. The series centers on Victoria's Secret runway model Haiden Renee Anderson and her interactions with the Bat family, as well as her dealings with some of Batman's most dangerous rogues. This mini-series has a full-feature cast including most of the Batman family, appearances from the Green Arrow, and a strong supporting role from Alfred. Main Characters *Haiden Anderson *Dick Grayson *Bruce Wayne Synopsis Set in modern-day Gotham City around the anniversary of the eve Batman's parents were murdered, Haiden eagerly awaits a sparring session with Bruce Wayne. After a sparring match that ends quickly with Bruce on top, Haiden begins sulking. Bruce's conscious gets the better of him as he allows Haiden to hug him to which she tries to kiss him. Due to Bruce's Catholic upbringing, he is unable to reciprocate the desires that she is so comfortable expressing that he pulls away from her breathlessly. Having known to have pushed herself too far, she retreats to her room to sulk. Alfred slides a note along with $600 dollars under the door, suggesting that retail therapy might be exactly what she needed (correctly deducting why she ran, as well as giving Bruce some time alone). Slipping out of the Wayne Manor window to her room, she whistled for her motorcycle and took it to the New Gotham Mall, which bordered disputed territory between the police and several low-level gangs. After window shopping and buying a white dress from a clueless cashier at H&M, Haiden nearly returns to her motorcycle that she had parked in an alley now flooded with homeless, before being assaulted and smothered with a chloroform rag. Strapped to an upright table in her underwear, she was at the mercy of Black Mask Roman Sionis, who gives her the truth serum sodium thiopental and informs her its the first of three injections used for a lethal injection. Haiden makes jokes as to why she's in Gotham, however, when threatened she exhibits behaviors similar to that of Batman. Not liking being lied to, Roman injects a vial's worth of pancuronium bromide into her jugular to much pain, in which she falls into a depressive episode, telling him to kill her. Refusing and deducing that she's in Gotham for the Batman, he orders a bag be put over her head, cuts her underwear free from her body and carries her out of their satellite interrogation bunker, leaving her face down and naked in an alley, keeping her cell phone. Having narrowed down her scrambled cell phone signal to four, Dick Grayson is the first to find her and notifies Batman. When the Bat-Jet arrives, Haiden wants nothing more than to be comforted by Bruce, going so far as to ambush him with a kiss. However, the Bat-Jet is shot with a rocket-propelled grenade, the shrapnel critically injuring Nightwing as Bruce protects Haiden with his cape. Haiden runs at Batman's request, the latter of which is taken hostage along with Nightwing as they get taken to a nearby warehouse ran by the Joker. Coming to her senses, Haiden quickly puts on her spare Batsuit and deftly infiltrates the warehouse, decimating the defenses once inside and takes down both Harley and the Joker with minimal assistance from Batman. Though not unfamiliar with killing, she refuses to end the Joker, though not without worrying Bruce first. Returning to the Batcave, Haiden bursts out at Bruce as he chastises her departure without informing anyone as to where she was going. Telling Bruce off and taking control of the conversation, she leaves the Manor to clear her head, visiting her parent's grave at a cemetery for Gotham's socialites. Bruce, having been impressed with her ability to stand up to him, is already at the cemetery, and they share a moment while the sun peeks over the horizon, Bruce still being unable to let the younger woman kiss him. Issue 2 Both without sleep, Bruce and Haiden verbally agree to begin a relationship, to which Bruce takes her to a local bakery, ordering her a carbohydrate-free breakfast before her modeling shoot. Angered that she couldn't eat whatever she wanted, she takes a stab at him that causes him to lose his hunger and his mood. After a quiet drive, they arrive at Veronica Vreeland's estate, where the 2013 Victoria's Secret photo shoot is taking place. The acting manager on hand, Debra Messinger gives superstar Adriana Lima special treatment (despite Candice Swanepoel wearing a $10 million-dollar bra later on that night). Several things go wrong at the photo shoot: Haiden is criticized for her nervousness on her first two runway walks, Doutzen Kroes is caught ravishing a hamburger due to her extreme diet and subsequently has a breakdown at Messinger's rebuking and Adriana Lima (who is revealed to have eaten pancakes earlier) is bloated when their clothing reveals their midsections, which the tabloids take full advantage of, and a designer heel snaps out from under her, to which she feels ridiculed as the muscular Haiden tries to help her up. Ditching the after-party show in which she was contractually obligated to 'meet n' greet' with the guests of the event, she and Bruce take off, being followed by a news van. Haiden is enraged by the phone number Veronica left under his windshield wiper blade. Through some dangerous driving, Bruce is able to shoot through a freeway cross-traffic intersection to lose his pursuers. Haiden, unable to understand Bruce's sullenness, wants to leave the Manor, to which he talks her down before he departs for a meeting. After a quick dinner, playful banter with Dick and a phone call to Oliver Queen, Haiden goes to sleep for the first time in 36 hours. Waking after a nightmare in which the Black Canary was killed by the Joker, she begins getting ready for the night patrol. Bruce sends Tim and Nightwing to Gotham City to investigate the Penguin arms cache while Bruce and Haiden take on the recent breakout at Blackgate penitentiary. Within seconds of landing, Haiden's twin brother Ricky rides in on a helicopter mounted with a chaingun, killing several and injuring Batman. After Ricky bludgeons Haiden to unconsciousness, he goes to finish off Batman while the helicopter revs up to take Haiden elsewhere. After disabling the helicopter with explosive gel and subduing Ricky, Batman collapses due to an arterial tear from the life-threatening bullet wound. Haiden airlifts Bruce with the Bat-Jet while interrogating Ricky. Ricky eventually recovers enough to subdue Haiden and awaken her to his boss, Hush (posing as Bruce Wayne). Though skeptical of his plans, Haiden falls for this more daring version of Bruce, going so far as to start undressing for him. Nightwing comes in shortly before the act, injuring Hush and taking Haiden. Telling her who she was dealing with, Tim and Dick keep it a secret as they return to the Batcave. Returning to her room, Haiden dons her 'Switchblade' attire, re-casing Blackgate after hotwiring a motorcycle. While infiltrating the compound, she is ambushed by the Spoiler and wards off her clumsy attack. The two escape the guards onto the roof, where Ricky critically injures Spoiler before he is beaten half to death by Haiden. Escaping, Haiden accidentally kills several guards by blinding them while at the tops of the rooftop ladders. Taking Spoiler to the nearby barricade of police and ambulances, she is arrested on sight and taken to the Gotham City P.D., using her one phone call upon arrival. Contacting Oliver, Haiden waits in a holding tank along with two Joker thugs (one of them being in a kennel, laughing) and various other criminals. The free Joker thug's laughing irritated a Blood member, to which the Joker thug thumbs out his eye. The Green Arrow blows out the back of the police station with a VTOL jet and hijacks the container, breaking it open and releasing all the criminals in the process. Haiden returns to the Batcave later than night to see Bruce hooked up to life-support due to her not having stabilized him first. She goes to bed after being rebuked by Barbara Gordon. The next morning, Bruce tears into Haiden for her ignoring protocol before getting into a limousine for a meeting. The news broadcasts that he had been arrested by the city due to leaked footage of Bruce Wayne buying guns from the Penguin. Issue 3 After Dick returns to Blüdhaven, Haiden is educated on how to use the P-99 Tumbler and sized for a more durable Batsuit. When Tim gets out of school, they are assigned to stake out the Joker and the Penguin's gang territories respectively, as any further conflict will put the city of Gotham under martial law. After five hours of no activity, Barbara informs the team that Black Mask is attacking Wayne Manor (having zeroed in on Haiden's cell phone signature from before), calling the Bat family back to the Cave. Haiden is taken hostage after charging in, and it is only Tim's knowledge of the Bat Cave's electronics that win the battle via turning out the lights. The battle came at a cost however. Tim was wounded and they now had 36 zip-tied criminals who all knew the Batman's identity. Haiden also receives a picture message, in which the Riddler has a photo of Haiden in the Gotham City holding tank that Oliver rescued her from. In order to protect Bruce's secret, Barbara called Jason Todd and locked the Bat Cave's entrance while she had him summarily execute the majority of the Black Masks' men, including Sionis. Haiden and Dick got in, but were unable to save any of them when Haiden moved to protect Dick, thus freeing up the line of sight to the last henchman. Though unknown to her, Barbara threatens to reveal Haiden's secret history with Superman if they tell Bruce about her actions. With Tim being hospitalized for his calf, Dick and Haiden are taken to Metropolis, KS, with fabricated alibis to remove themselves from the crime scene and list of suspects. Both sleep in their costumes in the one bed. Haiden has a dream about Dick, despite having said Bruce's name in her sleep. They wake up, having spooned in their sleep. Dick apologizes, but Haiden realizes that it has been Dick that has been there for her all along. They begin a frenzied sprawl towards sex before the limousine driver tasked with picking them up knocks. The two are given clothes discreetly, and are taken to see Oliver. On the way there, Haiden receives an angry message from Barbara, who guesses that they'd sex last night. When Haiden and Dick meet Oliver, he playfully jests Dick several times, often making him the butt of uncomfortable jokes that suggest that he might know about their relationship. When Oliver begins interrogating Dick about what happened, Haiden blurts out who attacked them. Feeling like she had screwed up somehow, Haiden leaves, but not before Oliver criticizes her overzealous attraction to savior-types, despite being the cause of her own problems. Haiden and Dick go visit Tim in the hospital, who easily deduces that Haiden has chosen Dick as a romantic partner. He warns her to tell Bruce before he finds out on his own, to which she agrees. As Haiden made her way back towards Gotham, she gets another message from both the Riddler and Barbara. Category:Comic Book Issues